


the kiss-y promise

by raleighocean



Series: An Original Horror Story [8]
Category: American Horror Story
Genre: 2018, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 07:50:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19080661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raleighocean/pseuds/raleighocean
Summary: It didn’t matter that she was late, it didn’t matter that it took her three years to come back. All that mattered to Sally was the way Raleigh was smiling at her from the hotel hall downstairs, how she opened her arms tiredly and almost didn’t make it to say ‘see? I’m a woman of my word’ before the blonde ghost tackled her to the ground.





	the kiss-y promise

**Author's Note:**

> placed after ‘take my soul, not my body’ and ‘water lillies bloomed from chaos (and love) third chapter’; Raleigh is sent to LA by Cordelia to take care of some possible students, so she decides to reunite with her friend.

One breath in, one breath out.

Looking up till her eyes could, all that...energy trying to pull at her out of familiarity instead of greediness, Raleigh tried to calm herself by trying to count every window in the building. She was always so sure of everything, that this was hilarious. She didn’t even stutter when she encountered something she probably didn’t know about. 

Raleigh couldn’t help but look at her clothes, actually worried about that. She had changed into some overalls to be comfortable and she was wearing the other plain t-shirt she brought with her. She should have bought more clothes, an actual suitcase instead of her old backpack actually. But it was going to be a quick thing, a three days two nights thing and then she was back home. 

Why was she worried about her clothes? 

Taking one of the sleeves of her jacket to her nose, taking in Wilhemina’s scent with her, Raleigh thought she still wasn’t used to be blind about stuff coming her way. It felt strange to not be prepared and it only increased her anxiety, however this time there was a feeling of expectation under all of that. And she kinda liked the taste of that expectation for the unknown, she thought while smiling at the memory of a few hours ago. 

Fixing her hair absent-minded in her reflection on the door, Raleigh thought she needed a cut. It got too long and she didn't have that much patience nor will to keep it nicely done. 

Now that she was looking at herself a bit more in detail, it only made her think if  _ she _ was going to recognize her. Well, she looked the same maybe? but now she was a bit more full, more healthy, more…Raleigh didn't know that, but she knew for sure that all of those questions in her head were to keep herself from doing what she was going to do in that hotel. 

She may had not changed, but the hotel Cortez did in someway. 

A last moment alone in Los Angeles autumn weather to clear her mind and then…Raleigh was in. Her steps were louder than she thought against the tiles, making herself feel self-conscious, but she kept walking and trying to ignore that detail. With shaky hands she pushed the entrance door as if it was the most delicate thing, and once she was in the small carpeted hall between both entrance doors, Raleigh felt how all the energy from the placed started to move and let her in. 

It was then when the actual nervousness started. 

What if  _ she  _ wasn't happy to see her? She already had her share of people being unhappy or not even glad she came back, so why would she be? Maybe it was her end? An end after having met an incredible woman, after seeing everyone was happy, after having her only goal in life fulfilled? 

A good end indeed. 

When she dared to finally open the last door, she did it shyly. As if she was bargaining somewhere she shouldn't be. The whole place was exactly the same in the inside, as much as the outside had changed, only with some more modern touches here and there. There was music playing softly in the distance, maybe in the bar upstairs, and Raleigh's eyes landed in the empty front desk. She should have made a reservation, maybe they were full? Tightening the grip in the straps of her backpack, she made her way towards there the same. 

Clearing her throat a bit, reciting a spell under her breath to make her voice sound a bit louder, she put her hand over the hotel bell before pushing the button to make it sound through the almost silent hall. 

"Hello?" the spell worked as she wished, going over the sound of the bell with more might that she thought. "Excuse me? Anybody?" 

Sally stopped the radio as soon as a voice came from the downstairs hall with such strength. She was supposed to cover the spot for Iris until she came back from feeding, but she got bored and soon she found her way to the bar. Liz didn't seem to mind that she was not doing her job, they got only a few clients a day and mostly during nights rather than day time. 

"Shit, shit, shit," she put off the cigarette before running her hands over her cheetah printed coat, trying to smooth any possible wrinkles, and then her hands wiped her face in case there were tears there. 

Doing a bee-line run towards the balcony first, she wished the client didn't go away already. Sighing loudly when she saw the back of whoever it was, she put a rehearsed smile on before rising her voice. 

"I'm sorry!" Sally put both hands in the golden banister, starting to go down the stairs a bit faster. "Did I make you wait?" 

It was so out of herself acting like that, but they needed to act polite and cool to get the historic certificate and everyone had to put their part to it. Even her. Sally didn't wait for the customer to talk back, starting to go downstairs without missing a beat. 

"Not as much as I made you wait, I'm afraid," 

Sally's eyes went directly to the…woman? Whose back was still facing her. At least for a few more seconds, because when she turned around Sally found herself looking into two familiar hazel eyes. 

Impossible. 

It was all a joke. 

Supporting herself in the handrail again, as if she actually needed, Sally's warm tears started to roll down her cheeks without any control. Her dead heart flipped against her ribcage, hurting like no tomorrow, while her legs got weak. She was a ghost and she was feeling  _ too  _ alive. But hell, that soft smile in her lips…it was one of pure shyness and nervousness. 

How many years did they spend apart? How many years had she waited for that scene to happen? How many nights she waited, looking at the main door, knowing it was all another lie? 

"I did promis-'

Raleigh couldn't finish what she was going to say, being hit by another weight that took her down to the carpeted floor. The only thing her arms could do was wrap the body that was pressed against hers, trembling uncontrollably with each intense sob. She managed to twist her body enough to not fall in her back, both falling sideways to the floor, so her backpack was safe. Closing her eyes and pressing her lips against Sally's cold forehead, Raleigh felt her anxiety melt away and a new smile rose to her lips as cold hands reached for her face and  _ caressed _ her cheeks with trembling thumbs. 

"You are here," Sally's brown eyes met Raleigh's hazel again and there wasn't sadness filling them, only pure happiness and  _ hope _ . "You did it, right? This…it means you did it."

Raleigh didn't know what exactly she was talking about, what exactly she did. The only thing she was able to get right in three years was fixing her head, because everything else was an utter disaster. 

"I need you to tell me everything, sunshine," Sally was excited for both, more than that, soon trying to get up from the floor and pulling Raleigh up with her as she could. "We need to catch up, over drinks, over food, over whatever you like; Liz! Liz!" her voice was even louder than Raleigh's without the amplifier spell. "You have to tell me how good  _ Sara  _ welcomed you back home, I bet she was over the roof!" 

And Raleigh let herself be dragged by her ghost friend towards the bar, trying to figure out how to tell Sally that  _ Sara  _ was waiting for her with  _ Rhiannon _ taking her hand; how she slapped her first and then ignored her after sorting her into a room, as if she was a nobody. 

Liz took her hand between hers upon seeing her sit by Sally's side in the counter, even going so far to compliment her. Feeling Sally's hand going through her long hair while Liz was talking, felt more like home than it did to go back to the Academy. She felt finally that someone was happy to see her and it made her feel how old tears were going back to her eyes. 

But she wasn't going to cry them. Letting Sally cry for both was better. 

“I’m so happy,” Sally’s statement was ever so soft after Liz went to get the two of them a drink and something to eat for Raleigh. “You look…beautiful, Ray. Did you really go to save the world or it was all a lie? Because you look fresh out of a spa," she laughed openly before lit up the cigarette between her lips.

“Oh shush,” Raleigh felt her cheeks burn, the feeling of having a knot in her throat being a bit more tight. “Three years under healing mud seems to do wonders, but I don’t think it made me look better. You had to see me right when I came back from the hole, I was like a big skeleton.”

“A sexy one I bet,” another laugh and Raleigh only nudged her shoulder, shaking her head. “C’mon babydoll, you know I can’t lie to you,” looking into each other’s eyes, they felt the sincerity behind that. “I saw you in really deep shit and had to take care of you, I own the right to tell you ‘shut the fuck up and take the compliment’.”

Raleigh sighed in defeat to that and it only made Sally smile wider. Out of the few friends she had in her whole life, the ghost was the one she held closer to her. Not because she was the oldest in time, she was the ‘newest’ indeed; but because she knew Sally would always talk to her straightforward, without holding a back a single thing.

She was glad that Sally seemed to enjoy leading the conversation because as soon as they had their drinks and the food with them, they engaged in some catch up conversation that Raleigh controlled enough to not talk about Cordelia or Misty at all. It was easier when she told Sally about how bad she was with her phone, and after a few hours of Sally trying to explain her stuff she resumed that she was still pretty much a sucker. At least she knew now how to send videos faster or even how to save something without making a screencap. 

The conversation also lead to how Raleigh knew about Sally’s whereabouts during those three years. Seeing Sally blush because she had an actual real fan of her was something fascinating, and soon there were plans for Mallory - sweet and oblivious Mallory - to have a couple things from Sally and even an autograph. 

Raleigh didn’t remember her friend that...free? As if she was actually enjoying her existence  _ finally _ . But she was diving in all that happy attitude, soaking in everything and letting herself relax after four stressful months of trying to fit in again. 

Wilhemina gave her that feeling too, even when she seemed so different from Sally.

“Well, now,” Sally brought Raleigh back to Earth by taking her hand, intertwining their fingers. “What about settle you up in my room for the night?” Her eyes had a glow she didn’t have last time she saw her. “I mean, are you staying right?”

“Of course I’m staying,” the habit of trying to keep her calm rose above her worries, but she really wanted to stay so it wasn’t a lie. “I need a shower, I need to go over some files, I need t-”

And then Sally had her hands in her cheeks, cupping her face with care and all the love she missed, pulling Raleigh into a kiss. 

It caught her by surprise how tender Sally’s lips were against hers. The scarred memory in her brain wasn’t like that at all, Sally’s kisses were needy and somewhat sloppy, ready to jump into a more heated kiss at any moment. But now it was as if she was getting used to her again. When they pulled apart, Sally had the biggest grin in her lips.

“As much as I love having you, I don’t like you to be stressed out already,” Sally giggled and then caressed lovely Raleigh’s cheek with her thumb. “Let’s go up and do the parts that doesn’t involve you going all bananas,” tilting her head softly, she gave one last peck to the witch. “Alright?”

There wasn’t any kind of desire behind those kisses, they were enough, they were just there for her to stop thinking and that’s all.

Raleigh followed Sally then, letting the ghost take the lead again. Their hands never parted, even when they reached the elevator and the doors closed. None of them talked during the little trip from the bar to Sally's room, but there wasn't a need to break the comfortable silence. 

Until Sally left Raleigh's side to leave her backpack over the bed, and the words left her lips in a broken whisper. 

"They were together, Sally," she felt too big for her own body, too big for her own mind. "Misty got back while I was away and…" her hand covered her mouth for a second. "They got together."

"For Christ's sake," Sally put off her cigarette in the nearest ashtray, her eyes shining with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "Are you for real?" 

"Hearing them fucking is real enough?" Raleigh chuckled lightly, and the ghost let out a low growl with a new curse. 

"What are you going to do?" 

Sally almost barked that question, her eyes now focused in her friend. She had seen her physically vulnerable, but never mentally. Her eyes always shining with some sort of hope for the future she had ahead, but now that she was looking at her again there wasn't any trace of that. Raleigh looked more lost than ever standing there in her overalls and with that look in her face that told Sally she was about to cry. 

"I don't know," she lifted her hands to her head and then her eyes finally met Sally's again. "I  _ can't _ know anymore."

Walking towards her friend, Sally felt a tug in her whole being. Her arms were soon around her tall figure, pulling her as close to her body as she could and kissing every inch of skin her lips came across. 

"It's okay babydoll, it's okay," her hands weren't grabbing, were holding her in place like they used to do back when they were together. "We'll figure something out, I promise," their eyes met and Sally wasn’t crying for once. Her eyes were clear when she pulled her into a new kiss, one so tender and unlike her that it was as if she was different person. “Let me  _ kiss-y  _ promise to you this time.”

To repeat the same thing Raleigh told Sally three years ago, made her heart completely melt. That wasn’t the Sally she left, it was a new one that was able to take control over the situation. Her hands never left Raleigh’s body, reassuring her that she wasn’t alone anymore and she let herself be loved by the ghost like that.

Keep her grounded one more time won’t hurt anyone, right?

“You kiss-y promised,” Raleigh chuckled that and it put a new big grin in Sally’s face. “You know that’s a real big deal, right?”

“Oh, I know, believe me,” Sally started to undo the overall slowly, helping her friend out of it. “And you are worthy of all those promises.”

Raleigh couldn’t gather, for once, any kind of response. It left her in a state of peace that she didn’t have since she came back from her ‘time-out’. And it also made her almost forget what she needed to do in the afternoon, now that she was resting in bed with Sally after a long hot shower.

She was falling asleep when Sally brought it back to her head, just because she had their phones over her lap and was the first one to see it.

“Who’s this Wilhemina...” she narrowed her eyes, trying to see the screen better. “...and why is she texting you an address and ‘don’t be late’?”

“I met her last night,” Raleigh’s heart did a flip in her chest, feeling the back of her neck and her ears warm. “I completely fo-”

“Oh for-She’s hot,” Sally laughed, checking her profile picture, and then realized what her friend said. “Wait, last night?”

“I slept in her house, we ahm, it turned out she was a witch,” why was she getting nervous now? Now all the information was a mess in her head. “I’m trying to-I mean, Cordelia thinks-We think it would be better if she was in New Orleans with us and-”

Sally put her hand over Raleigh’s mouth to stop her from rambling for a second while her eyes were fixed in the screen. Both watched in silence how Wilhemina was typing something else, aside of her professional like text about a  _ date _ ? and none of them expected the next message.

_ Where did you leave my stockings btw? _

“You had a one night stand,” Sally’s voice started to go up. “And you are seeing her again,” Raleigh started to be more awake, trying to not be near her friend’s hands. “And she is-Oh my god, miss Ocean, you absolute-”

“Please, Sall, calm down,”

“No!?” Raleigh wasn’t fast enough to get out of bed and then she was on the floor with Sally straddling her to stop her from moving. “Why didn’t you tell me!? How can you leave that ou-”

The sound of the door startled both and Raleigh felt all her magic being called, as self-defense, ready for anything that was coming their way. Soon the view of a woman she wasn’t familiar with came before her and she looked worriedly at her ghost friend, now smiling with the force of thousand suns.

“Sorry honey, I got into a fist fight this morning and Ram-” her slurred speech got cut after she left her jacket over one of the couchs, her tired eyes trying to discern about what was going on in the floor of the room. “Are we having a threesome? or are you busy?”

“Honey?” Raleigh’s eyes went to Sally, that rolled hers. “Now who’s leavi-”

“Shush,” Sally’s hand over the witch’s mouth again and her free one stretched out to take the other woman’s hand “Adri, love, we have an emergency,” the woman smiled at the sweet name and got closer. “My friend here has a date and we might need some of your shirts, she didn’t bring shit for a three days trip.”

“Oh, that’s-” her smile then faded and Sally and Raleigh frowned worriedly at that change. “Hmm, excuse me a sec-”

When they were left alone again, just because Adri - Adriana, as Sally told Ray - had to get whatever she had ingested out of her system, both women stood where they were left in the floor. There was a glint in Sally’s eyes that hinted that she was up to some mischief. Or at least, she was up to get a bit of _ revenge _ .

The sweetest, it seemed, because once the date was over Raleigh couldn’t help but smile a bit excited. 

Wilhemina ended up accepting to go with her to New Orleans...but also couldn’t keep her eyes off her neckline.


End file.
